GOING WES: Bottle Rocket

THE GIST: Three friends Dignan, Anthony and Bob have a plan. Well, Dignan does anyways. He has a 50-year plan that includes staging various robberies to get the attention of the legendary (to his mind anyways) Mr. Henry and join his crew. Only problem is, Dignan has no idea what he is doing. After the inept, but marginally successful robbery of a bookstore, the three friends go into hiding at a cheap motel where Anthony falls in love with a housekeeper, Inez. Upon leaving the motel, the guys go back to their humdrum lives until Mr. Henry comes to call and bring them in on a big score.

THE CHARACTER: Owen Wilson’s Dignan is supremely confident and has no idea what he is doing. Without him, there would be no film as he takes the lead and others blindly follow just to make him feel better about himself.

THE MUSIC: As Dignan searches for a car to leave the motel with Anthony, The Proclaimers’ “Over and Done With” plays in the background. The beat carries him forward as he attempts to break into a car before settling on a beat up convertible that carries him and Anthony away. As the refrain–“it’s over and done with”–kicks in, the film switches to Inez, who has been left behind. The music is coming from her radio and she angrily switches it off, abruptly ending the song.

WHERE IT REALLY GOES WES: As Anthony hang out poolside, he spots Inez for the first time. Anthony’s attraction is signalled by a series of quick edits showing closeups of Inez’s feet, shoes and radio all to an upbeat Latin rhythm, providing a nice exclamation point to the banality of the film to that point.

NOTABLE QUOTE:

They’ll never catch me, because I’m fucking innocent.

– Dignan

Amanda is a Toronto based film critic. She is currently pursuing her Masters at York University and waiting for The Doctor to come and spirit her away in the Tardis. Follow her on Twitter @ALeighclarke.